either acts of desperation nor the inaction of hopelessness can be eas - PDF document

either acts of desperation nor the inaction of hopelessness can be easily aligned with constrained utility maximization, since neither suggests that what is usually thought of as a From St. PaulÕs second letter to the Corinthians onwards, the theological definition of despair is the loss of hope of salvation. To be saved, one must repent oneÕs sins and seek forgiveness. Since all sins can be forgiven, by God if not by man, no one is excluded from salvation a priori. Yet if the sinner despairs, he determines that his own sins are unforgivableby God and that penitence, no matter how sincere, so much so that even suicides that had a secular motive, such as crippling debt, a love affair gone wrong, or mental illness, were treated as spiritual despair in both law and custom. Specifically, it was common in the Middle Ages for the bodies of suicides is damned, and this recognition leads to despair: he is nothing without GodÕs grace. This realization opens to him the knowledge of the Gospel and the prospect of salvation. Despair, the descent into and journey through hell, for Luther, was a prerequisite for salvation. So, too, for Calvin, yet for Calvin despair afflicts only the pre-conversion elect or those who have not truly converted and are thus not of the He will not view the world as being broken yet it is its brokenness that killed his transcendent exigency leaving him as only a functional entity. He will be reduced to a machine-like existence living a life examines despair as an emotion, which must be (have been) despair.The goal could be a happy marriage, supporting oneÕs family, having a successful career, or salvation. The point is that despair is an emotion thereby Òresults from persistent failure to c Second, re-entry into that society is or is perceived to be exceedingly difficult, perhaps impossible. Third, because the despairing sit outside society they are not necessarily or do not perceive themselves to be bound by its conventions. Fourth, social relationships become difficult or impossible. Fifth, the ability to act, to cope even with the quotidian, atrophies or is lost. Apathy, lethargy, recklessness and suicide are common responses to despair. Sixth, life is without value or meaning. This state of may be temporary or permanent. If temporary, life after emerging from despair has less value. If permanent, a future, any future, cannot be imagined. III Hope: the Antithesis of Despair Pecchenino (2011) examines hope, despairs opposite,from the perspective of many disciplines to establish its place in economic thought. From her review of the literature she finds the following. First, that most of the theories of hope have a strong future goal orientation where the future looms large in an individualÕs decision making process. The present, rather than the future, is discounted. Second, goal attainment depends on an individualÕs desire and ability to transform what is into what should be or to movetoward what should be or what will be even if that goal is Modelling Despair2 IV.1 The standard model In its most basic formulation, the discounted utility model, the standard model of intertemporal decision making by a rational, utility maximising individual, defines an individualÕs intertemporal preferences over consumption profiles from takes today to be carried out ten days, months, yearshence is precisely the decision he will take once those ten days, months, years ture, the agentÕs world collapses. IV.3 Goal-oriented preferences and individual identity In standard economic analysis an individual has preferences defined over goods, services, and leisure. More of each is always better, although subject to diminishing marginal utility, and the goods, services, and leisure may be complementary or substitutable. Preferences are not defined relatively but rather absolutely. However, preferences can also be despair of not being able to become. Following standard theory, the individual agent has a single preference ordering elements. An individualÕs hopefulness or lack thereof affects the cost of achieving his goals and the resources he has to do so. The utility function does not conform to expected utility assumptions since probabilities, whether exogenous, affected by own actions or conditioned by hope or despair, are embedded in the effort required for attainment of oneÕs goal ideal. Further, utility is neither separable across goals with different probabilities of achievement nor across time. By including probabilities of success as just one of many conditioning variables which determine the effort required for achievement of oneÕs goal ideal allows, for example, other conditioning variables could reinforce a low probability of success for the despairing individual while mitigating or contradicting the same for a hopeful individual. Given this structure it is possible to analyze the interactions across goals and plans (see Jeitschko, OÕConnell and Pecchenino, 2008, for derivations) to achieve those goals as a result of changes in this environment Ð changes in the conditioning variables or probabilities of success, whether exogenous, functions of own effort, or of oneÕs existential state, that cause collective or individual beliefs to change, and the effects of substitutability or complementarity of goals. depends on expected income over oneÕs remaining life, the cost of maintaining oneself and oneÕs family at an acceptable level, and oneÕs aversion to suicide. 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